


Duct Tape and Wishful Thinking

by alocalband



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-01
Packaged: 2020-04-06 05:27:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19056139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alocalband/pseuds/alocalband
Summary: Look, it is not Derek’s fault Stiles got back from his second year of college looking likethat,okay? Maybe if someone had warned him that Stiles suddenly figured out what to do with his hair and how to dress himself and had apparently been hitting the gym pretty regularly, Derek might have been able to prepare for this.





	Duct Tape and Wishful Thinking

**Author's Note:**

> for the prompt: things you interrupted me to say
> 
> [also on tumblr](https://alocalband.tumblr.com/post/185300773945/duct-tape-and-wishful-thinking-sterek-13k-teen)

“You’re doing it again.”

Derek frowns. “Doing what?”

“Staring.”

Without meaning to, Derek’s eyes immediately glance back over to Stiles, and then quickly away.

Scott smirks.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure you don’t. Whatever helps you sleep at night, Derek.”

Derek’s gaze drifts helplessly once more back to where Stiles is fully bent over the engine of the Jeep, intently toying with whatever duct tape and wishful thinking are holding the whole thing together.

Those jeans are doing amazing things for his ass.

Scott’s elbow hits Derek hard in the side. “Quit ogling my best friend and help me keep watch.”

They’ve been out here in the dark of the preserve for a couple hours now. It started as a meandering search for the source of whatever’s been leaving headless carcasses at the Nemeton all week, Stiles roaming the edges of the forest in the Jeep while Scott and Derek did runs through the trees alongside.

Then, of course, the hunk of junk died, and now the agenda for the evening is basically just to make sure nothing attacks Stiles before he’s had a chance to make the thing start running again.

“I am not ogling.”

“I can literally _smell_ how much that’s a lie.”

Look, it is not Derek’s fault Stiles got back from his second year of college looking like _that,_ okay? Maybe if someone had warned him that Stiles suddenly figured out what to do with his hair and how to dress himself and had apparently been hitting the gym pretty regularly, Derek might have been able to prepare for this.

As it is, it’s all a little too much. Derek might have already been having certain... _feelings_ about the guy before, but this is ratcheting those feelings up to a level he’s not sure how to handle.

“Please just ask him out already and put us all out of our misery.”

Derek is definitely not doing that.

For a lot of reasons, really, but mainly because he’s not exactly interested in getting his heart broken. And he knows Stiles doesn’t feel that way about him, that the most Stiles feels for him is reluctant camaraderie. Which is fine. He can deal. He’s obviously weathered worse romantic situations in his life.

Derek’s eyes betray him once again as they fall onto the hard lines of Stiles’ back. He’s wearing a shirt that actually fits him, which means the corded muscles are clearly visible beneath the fabric as he works.

But if Derek’s honest with himself, the problem here isn’t just that he wants to take Stiles back to the loft and lick every inch of him. It’s that he also wants to, like, bring him breakfast in bed afterwards and then discuss the merits of a June wedding.

He really needs to get this under control.

“Oh my god, can you at least turn the pining down a couple of notches?” Scott whines.

Derek huffs and turns to scowl at him. “Listen, I’m dealing with it, alright? It’s just harder to move on when-- when he’s _right there_. But I’m keeping it in check, and when he heads back to school in the fall, I’ll find a way to get over it. I’m not going to let my feelings get in the way of--”

“Hey, you guys know I can hear you, right?”

Derek’s mouth snaps shut, and both he and Scott turn to where Stiles is now just sitting on the closed hood of the Jeep watching them. “Also the Jeep’s been fixed for about ten minutes now, I just really wanted to see where this conversation was gonna go.” He smirks, the little shit. “I was not disappointed.”

Scott chokes on a barely held back laugh.

Derek draws in a deep breath, holds it for a silent count of ten, and then turns around and starts walking.

He’d run, but he has slightly more dignity than that.

Slightly.

From behind him he can hear Scott and Stiles arguing with each other, but he tunes it out and keeps going. He doesn’t need to hear it.

Half an hour later, back in the loft and dressed down for bed, very pointedly not letting his thoughts linger anywhere near the events of the evening, Derek’s front door opens and Stiles strides in.

Derek sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Please leave.”

“Hey, if you didn’t want me dropping by unannounced you shouldn’t have given me a key.”

“I didn’t give you a key. You stole mine and made a copy while I was unconscious after the troll incident.”

Stiles waves this off with one hand and a roll of his eyes, as if to say _po-tay-to po-tah-to_ , and then throws himself onto Derek’s couch. “So. About what you said.”

“We don’t need to talk about this.” Derek crosses his arms over his chest and starts contemplating how well picking Stiles up and tossing him back out the door would go over.

“I think we should anyway.”

“It’s not an issue.”

“It could be.”

“Stiles...” Derek sighs again. “Please don’t make me do this.”

Stiles bites his lip and looks down at the hands he now has clasped together in his lap. “Yeah, so the thing is I kinda love you too.”

Derek freezes.

He’s certain he heard that wrong.

Stiles jumps back up from his seat and starts pacing nervously, completely ignoring Derek’s current mental breakdown. “So obviously I’ve been attracted to you since day one, you know that. Anyone with eyeballs knows that. But then there was Mexico, and I thought-- But I mean, why the hell would you ever reciprocate? I’m me and you’re... Whatever. But I caught a bad case of what I _thought_ was unrequited feelings, and I was just gonna suffer in silence, right? That seemed like the mature response--adulthood freaking sucks by the way--but apparently... you like me back?”

He stops short and finally looks at Derek head on. “You do, right? I didn’t hallucinate the last couple hours?”

At that, Derek does the only thing his still offline brain can come up with. He closes the distance between them and kisses him.

It’s a good kiss. Something Derek’s going to remember years later, no matter how the aftermath of it shakes out. Stiles immediately goes pliant in Derek’s arms, and then, after a moment, starts taking over in that way he has of throwing himself into a project with the enthusiasm of someone who’s not just willing but eager to pull multiple all-nighters for it.

Panting, they break apart, though Stiles keeps pulling at Derek’s shirt with both hands like he’s afraid Derek will move away any farther that those couple inches.

Derek squeezes Stiles’ hips with his own hands in reassurance, and then ducks his head down and to the side to press his nose into the hair at Stiles’ temple.

“'Love?’” he whispers, trying not to sound as hesitant as his heart definitely is.

Stiles swallows, then turns his head a little so that he can place a kiss at the juncture between Derek’s neck and shoulder. “Yeah. You?”

“Yeah,” Derek breathes.

And then they’re kissing again.

It takes them a little while, but eventually they make it to the bed. Derek does, in fact, get to lick an awful lot of mole-dotted skin, and does, in fact, make Stiles breakfast in bed the next morning.

He’s smart enough to save the June wedding talk for a little later.


End file.
